La Grange audience agrees King’s dream still alive, but needs work
By Jane Michaels jmichaels@pioneerlocal.com January 16, 2012 5:34PM
Keynote speaker the Rev. Theodore Moran, pastor of Davis Memorial AME Church, wipes a tear as he recalls his thoughts when he first heard artin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media
Updated: February 20, 2012 8:10AM
Even after nearly 50 years, the Rev. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech served as a launch pad of inspiration for listeners gathered Monday in La Grange to celebrate the slain civil rights leader’s legacy.
King’s dream of equality isn’t dead, but more needs to be done to fully realize his vision, audience members agreed during a program at the Park District of La Grange Community Center. The event was sponsored by the La Grange chapter of the NAACP, the Caring Place afterschool program and the Western Star Masonic Lodge.
About 40 audience members watched a DVD of King’s speech in 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., which prompted a flood of memories for some.
“I was raised in Mississippi in the Delta,” recalled retired teacher Sallye Branch of Westchester. “When Dr. King gave his speech I was about 14. I didn’t see it; our TV probably wasn’t working.
“But I can remember the freedom house across the street from us. That’s where the Freedom Riders came in to do voter registration,” Branch said of the volunteers who rode buses from northern cities. “We learned the civil rights songs there. One morning there was a fire at 4 a.m., and it was burned down.”
Branch also recalled spending some days working in cotton fields while white children rode buses to school.
“I come from a family of 10 children,” she said. “Education was very important for our hopes and dreams. We learned from torn books.
“You can’t just have a dream and sit still. You have to do the studying, the writing. You have to do it all and be ready to step in.”
Joe Thomas, who grew up in Alabama and moved to La Grange in 1962, said he had relatives who were beaten on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, when 600 participants in the march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery were attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside of Selma.
King’s words were “like the voice of John the Baptist,” and King inspired others to believe in change and march for it, Thomas said.
“We’ve still got a lot of work left to do,” Thomas said. “We’ve got to join hands together and stop our young people from getting killed every day.”
Anissa Burrell-Butler, 42, of Westchester said she wasn’t born when King gave his famous speech, but she was thrilled with the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and wore a campaign shirt to honor King and the president.
“I was so excited. I went to the inauguration, and it was great, like having some of Martin Luther King’s speech come alive,” Burrell-Butler said. “We were all together, hugging like ‘Kumbaya.’”
“Change has come, but more is needed,” she said, recounting an incident at a Westchester Park District basketball game Jan. 13 for her 10-year-old son.
“A coach was called the N word in a gym full of kids in 2012,” she said. “If you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re headed.”
As the keynote speaker, the Rev. Theodore Moran, pastor of Davis Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church in La Grange, said it was strange to think of King as an historical figure.
“I was blessed to have met him and talked with him,” Moran said. “I participated in the marches and got beat on the head by police,” Moran said. “We had a special one-on-one talk.”
King has left a lasting impact, the pastor said.
“He was truly a dangerous man, and he’s still dangerous, because he’s a threat to the status quo,” Moran said. “He practiced what he preached and matched his words with actions. He was not afraid to speak out against injustice.”
Moran considered King a Renaissance man, making the most of his intellect and talents with hard work in preparing for events, courage and a sense of humor.
The pastor called on listeners to exercise their right to vote, tell the stories and pass on the traditions of the civil rights movement, read King’s books, study and prepare for the future and make connections from past struggles with current events.
“People are on cell phones all the time, but what are we communicating. What would Dr. King think about what we’re saying and doing,” Moran challenged. “If you’re on Facebook and Twitter, use the tools of technology for more than keeping in touch.”
Progress toward civil rights equality has been made, Moran said, considering the possibility of two black men running for president, if Herman Cain hadn’t ended his bid to be the Republicans’ choice to face Obama in November.
“We’ve got to get dangerous again,” Moran said. “Hopefully, we’ll have more than just 39 years like Dr. King had, and we’ll use our time well.”
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